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York County man remembers -- but would like to forget -- his frantic Sept. 11 in New York City

The chairman of the York County Democratic thought his friend might have been in a World Trade Center tower when it was hit.

By BILL LANDAUER Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated:
09/07/2011 09:40:23 PM EDT

Bob Kefauver took this photo from Jersey City on 911. (Submitted)

York, PA -
Bob Kefauver tries not to think about it.

The Democratic Party of York County chairman pushes memories of Sept. 11, 2001, to a dark corner of his mind, where his daylong search for a friend can no longer fill him with terror.

That morning, Kefauver was frantic.

He needed to get to a doctor's appointment at Apple Hill Medical Center in York, but he was stuck at his friend Kelly Krimmel's place in northern New Jersey with his car keys nowhere to be found.

Krimmel had just taken a job at JP Morgan in the city a few weeks earlier. The move had excited Kefauver, who loved the views of the Manhattan skyline just across the river.

Shortly before 9 a.m., Kefauver left her apartment and walked to the park about a block and a half away where he could call her from a pay phone.

Kefauver heard the sound of a jet engine throttling. Then, a slap of thunder, but there wasn't a cloud in sight.

He tried calling Krimmel. No answer. He was hanging up when woman in a jogging suit yelled to him. "Two planes just hit the twin towers!"

He looked to the right across the buildings that hug the Hudson. The thunder had been the second plane.

Kefauver ran back to the apartment, left a note for Krimmel and made his way to the waterfront to search for her.

His worry about Krimmel grew.

The only route across the Hudson were ferryboats. As he searched for his girlfriend, Kefauver hoped he might spot her disembarking at one of the docks. He stopped to help firefighters hand out bottled water.

Gray and black soot covered some of the passengers getting off the boats. They gulped the water as though they hadn't had anything to drink in days.

A man stood staring at the towers across the river through a pair of binoculars. He handed them to Kefauver.

At first, Kefauver thought he saw a bird perched on a ledge. Through the binoculars, Kefauver saw it was a man. As he watched, the man jumped from the side of the building.

Bob Kefauver took this photo from Jersey City on 911. (Submitted)

Kefauver looked away.

"'There did you see that?'" Kefauver remembered the man with binoculars said. "He just wanted to make sure somebody was seeing what he was seeing."

At 4:15 p.m., Kefauver's mother got the call. Krimmel was OK. She hadn't been in the building when the planes hit. It took her hours to find a place to cross the river to get home.

Kefauver remembers seeing her on the street. They ran to one another and embraced.

"It was the best hug of my life," he said.

It had taken about 12 hours for Krimmel and Kefauver to find one another.

After Sept. 11, 2001, Kefauver got more involved in politics. He became chairman of the local Democratic party.

"It was one of those defining moments in my life," he said.

But he doesn't attend the ceremonies and tries to ignore the sounds of breaking glass he can still hear.